² “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and ^(A)He has appointed me to rebuild for Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

⁴ Now when I heard these words, ^(A)I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before ^(B)the God of heaven.

¹⁸ so that they might ^(A)request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his friends would not be ^(B)killed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.